Feel Good Lost: November 2011

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I heard folks say Fall is depressing and I think that's absolutely ridiculous. Sure, summer's bowing out and the temperature's dropping but the sun is still on blast, the leaves are gorgeous, football starts to get exciting and then basketball season rolls around. Holy smokes, what in the world is there not to love about fall? It's also neat too to see folks graduate from tropical colours of summer into layers. That right there makes me can't wait to be in a big city somewhere, spending a Saturday just waltzing around here, there and all over the place, passing great looking folks of every kind all snazzed up for whatever the reason. This would be my jam for it too. Spank Rock is razor sharp and sinister, like some black-jacketed nightmare to everything family friendly while Miss Santigold sounds so fucking lifted; full of grace yet so far gone. She's half begging to come back to earth but can't open her eyes or quit smiling because she knows if she does, the lofty connection with the divine is severed and she's back to sitting shotgun in a 1959 red Mercedes 190 SL, trying to keep her troubadour behind the wheel from waving his switchblade around and hollering strange questions at folks crossing the street at red lights. "C'mon darling, its too pretty outside to be like so." Together they form this amazing spiritual alignment, a union of opposites, a melting down of absolutes, cruising round town and loving the last gasps of convertible weather.

Spank Rock-Car Song (feat. Santigold)

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing

-Edmund Burke

I think Paterno is a scapegoat. I think he tried to do the right thing and the right thing didn't happen.

-Joe Posnanski, teacher of journalism at Penn State.

The sports world has been rocked this week by allegations of sexual abuse occuring at Penn State over a decade long period of time and an incredibly sticky situation has emerged from the fray. The president has stepped down, the athletic director has been stripped of his Man of the Year award and legendary coach Joe Paterno has been fired on the spot over the phone by unanimous vote from the Penn State's board of trustee's. College football has never seen the likes of this matter before, not in this severity. What's going on and what's this pointing towards?

For a pretty stupendous recap of the whole ordeal, head over to Boodsville and learn something.
Here's two cents on the matter, which I tried to explain in class today but the yelling got pretty vengeful for first thing in the morning and I was surprised and a bit distressed to find out that everyone wanted my head for not wanting to outrightly prod Paterno with the nearest flaming skewer. Hold your horses Econ 300, its eight in the morning and I'm devil's advocating here the best I know how. Chill out yall....

But this is a very big deal here, with a messy entanglement of legal and moral implications. The big question looming over Happy Valley is this... since first hearing word of this, what has been our biggest priority? Penn State football or the welfare of a few (dozen?) youngsters? The answer so far is looking pretty awful and that is the big big mess Penn State is going to have kinghell time trying to account for and somehow explain to the rest of the world. So there's that concerning the administration. What about Joe Paterno? When Joe Paterno caught hear of this matter back in 2002 or so, he immediately notified the next in command. In doing so, he fulfilled his legal obligation of the matter and But how bout his moral responsibility? What was his conscience thinking in all this?
Should he have done as much as humanly possible to distance himself from Sandusky and Sandusky away from the university?
Yes, he probably should have. His eyes of self preservation should have angled a little broader to consider more secondary effects.
Should he have done anything more than just his legal obligation?
Without a doubt, the answer is absolutely yes. We have a moral obligation to right wrongs when given the chance. But why didn't he? That there's the real question of hour.

Incentives are everything. In my mind, to consider his perspective, JoePa decided against being the initial whistleblower in this whole ordeal in order to preserve not just the season nor his own reputation but more importantly, the true ssence of State College, Pennsylvania, one of the last bastions of white Norman Rockwellian America in the nation, a place hidden away from major newspaper with a very pardonable insider culture where football was king, he was God, and Penn State regime reigned supreme. A place only like so thanks JoePa & Co's 60+ years of hard work and dedication. While it was absolutely a moral slight to shove this very ugly matter under the carpet like so, for JoePa's sake, he did best to control what he could control. He focused on the team and probably did not want to believe that his colleague who he had worked with for 30+ years was raping little boys in the locker room showers.
The fact of the matter is, Joe Paterno is a good human being who's ego got the best of him.
Bobby Bowden is sitting in his rocking chair in Somewhere, Florida, grinning while his long time rival's world crumbling down around him.
Pride always comes before the fall.

Joe Paterno should not have been ousted in the manner that unfolded yesterday night. Not with one home game remaining. After 61 years and two national championships, the board of trustees fired him over the fucking phone. That's even worse than what Duke University did to their lacrosse coach a few years ago, all in the name of short term profits and politics. Time will hopefully iron this situation out, just like it did with Duke and hopefully JoePa lives long enough to preserve his legacy......

But this awful story continues to unfold and the civil lawsuits haven't even begun. I just read that this guy in Miami just won a $100 million lawsuit against a priest who abused him over 20 years ago. Is it right that over 100 years' worth of charitable giving by local catholics goes completely out the window in the name of politics? Is it right to close every catholic school in the Miami-Dade area in order to pay off this gentleman and make him feel right? Those are the hard questions to ask and Penn State is about to be in a jungle of red tape when it comes time for every respected party to lawyer up.

Heads will keep rolling. The number of folks involved in this mess are going to continue to grow and time will tell where it goes from here. The NY Times published an article the other day that blew my mind though. The inital kindlings of this Sandusky case started in 1998, when reports the coach showering with a 11 year old boy reached the local DA's desk. That district attorney was Ray Gricar, a man known for being meticulous, tough minded and unbowed before Penn State and its far reaching political influence. But for reasons unknown Gricar chose not to prosecute the coach. Then on April 15th, 2005, Gricar dropped off the face of the map. His car was discovered 50 miles away, abandoned. His laptop was found in a nearby river, its hard drive missing. His body was never recovered. He has since been declared legally dead, but not before fueling the fire of conspiracy theorists all over the place. The recent events with the university are only going to stoke those embers. Could the political influence of Penn State potentially reach that far? Who knows?

{Questions on Sandusky Are Wrapped in a 2005 Mystery | NY Times | Continue}
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Someone at CNN has a terrible sense of humor... (Deadspin)